Sadly I Have To Report The Passing Of Annie

Annie came to us June 6th, 2005.  She belonged to a lady Darryl had gotten to know before we moved here.  Annie was an orphan, losing not only her mother but her three siblings at her birth in 1999.  She was raised for some period of time in the kitchen and became a real “people” goat.  When the lady was preparing to move from her small farm in the summer of 2005 she was seeking good homes for her animals and asked if we would like to have Annie.  We were thrilled to get her.  Although she had already raised several kids she was not a new mother when she came to Cedar Ridge.

In the nearly 5 years she was here she presented us with 13 goat babies.  On January 24, 2006 she had quads.  With a little help from us she managed to raise all four.  We still have one of her daughters from that kidding, Brownie.  The next year Annie had triplets on March 3rd, 2007.  The little buck was stillborn but we raised both of the little does.  We kept one and she is one of our current milking does, Zoe.

On March 28, 2008 Annie gave birth to two little does.  March 16th, 2009 she had twins again, a buck and a doe.  This year she again had twins, a buck and a doe.  We named them Abe and Abby.

Just exactly what was wrong we aren’t sure but Annie developed some intestinal difficulties and very quickly weakened and then died this last Sunday night.  Our immediate concern of course was for her month old babies.  With some effort they have both now, finally, begun to take a bottle.  Hopefully, we can find homes for them where they can be cared for.

Annie was quite special and will be missed by all of us here on the farm. You can read a couple of previous posts about Annie here  and here.

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Boy, Do I Ever Have A Lot Of Catching Up To Do!

Blogging hasn’t taken a high priority for the last few weeks. Upon our return from Oregon at the end of March we have been busy, busy, busy! I had put off doing any gardening or seed starting. That had to begin almost immediately after arriving back home. That went well and we have been having fresh radishes, greens, onions from the garden.

I did a couple of posts as reports on our trip and I have more to post. Bear with me, I’ll get it done.

Shortly after getting back to the farm we began getting baby goats. Zoe, the goat who refused to accept her kid last year, was the first to kid. She had a nice little doeling which we named Zaylee. A couple of days later Brownie also had a doeling. We named her Baylee. Not exactly twins but are half-sisters, from the same daddy. Their mothers are half-sisters also.


That is Zaylee on the left and Baylee on the right.

Annie waited a couple of weeks and presented us with twins, Abe and Abby. Annie is getting old and isn’t in as good a condition as in previous years. I’m not milking her, just letting her raise her babies.

I used rocks I hauled home from the old house I’ve been tearing down to level out Connie’s flower bed. (See my post on that here.) That took a few days.

When I built our deck in 2005 I used some “cull wood” from the sawmill as decking. Even though I have applied water seal a few times some of the boards were rotting. I replaced the deck floor with treated deck boards.


Here you can see some of the new boards that have been put into place. The blue/green in the lower left is one of my water tanks that are under the deck. These are used to hold some of the rain that runs off of the roof.

When we first arrived back home we were in a bit of a dry period here in South-Central Kentucky, running a deficit of about 8 inches. That has changed. Over about 4 days at the end of April we received over 3” of rain, which we really appreciated. However, the next weekend, Saturday and Sunday, May 1 and 2 we got 11 and 1/10 inches! Living on top of a ridge we had no major problems, just a bit of erosion from the gardens, etc. But, our little community suffered some major flooding. Nothing like Nashville, TN but still several homes and businesses were flooded. The city lake almost washed out. The highway was closed and several folks were evacuated as it appeared that the dam was going to wash away. So much water was coming over the concrete spillway and the earth dam was eroding on both sides. Thankfully it didn’t go but there is alot of repair work to be done.

I have spent nearly everyday the past two weeks working to complete the project of tearing down the old house and hauling home salvaged material. I’m close to being done.


This pile of boards, all 14-16 feet long, have yet to be hauled home. Darryl will use his 16’ trailer to haul them. As you can see my little truck just won’t handle material of that length.

As I have mentioned before we heat with wood. The wood stove we have been using for the last couple of winters is a cook stove with a large fire box. When we quit having to have heat Connie hated to go back to cooking on our gas range. She said if I had told her 10 years ago that she would be cooking on a wood cook stove, and further, enjoying it she would have thought them crazy. With the big fire box it just isn’t practical to cook on our Bakers Choice in the warmer months. We discussed moving the stove onto the screened front porch for the summer but that is a pretty big job and still takes more wood to get the stove up to cooking temps. We decided to look for a smaller and less expensive wood cook stove that we could put on the porch. That would become in essence a summer kitchen.

After doing some searching on line I discovered on ebay what we were looking for. The individual/business had 3 different stoves available, all new. One was pretty plain, one just like it with chrome trim and the third one had a slightly larger fire box and a water reservoir. The third one was the one we bid on and bought. The stove is much lighter in weight, is not air-tight and isn’t the quality of the Bakers Choice but is a good little stove. We are enjoying it. Connie is learning how to use the oven as it doesn’t heat quite the same as the one we have in the kitchen.


Hopefully, this brings you somewhat up-to-date. I’ll try to stay a bit more current and I’ll strive to finish my reports on “our big adventure.”

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Cedar-Apple Rust Gall

 

Following yesterdays rain we began seeing these alien looking things hanging on many of the cedar trees.  What in the world were they?  It seemed evident that they were some type of fungi.  After doing a bit of research we discovered that this is the Cedar-Apple Rust Gall. 

The following information is taken from the Kentucky Pest News Newsletter.

“Rust-infected Juniperus species (cedars and junipers) are revealing bright orange evidence of the rust fungi infecting them during moist periods this spring.  In Kentucky, we commonly see three different rust fungi on cedars and junipers, often on the same tree.  These rust diseases are cedar-apple rust, cedar-hawthorn rust, and cedar-quince rust.  All three rusts are caused by different species of the fungus Gymnosporangium, each of which must spend a phase of its life cycle as a parasite on Juniperus species such as native red cedars or ornamental junipers.  The other phase of the life of these rust fungi is spent on susceptible alternate hosts such as apple, crabapple, hawthorn, mountain ash, pear, and serviceberry.

”

 Cedar apple rust.  The cedar-apple rust fungus (G. juniperi-virginianae) forms light brown to reddish or chocolate brown galls in the leaf axils of infected Juniperus species.  These galls are usually rounded and range from pea-sized to 2 inches in diameter.  As galls mature, the flesh becomes corky and the surface becomes pitted with circular depressions.  In spring, following rainy periods, slimy, yellow-orange tendrils, or “spore horns,” up to 2 inches long swell and protrude from these depressions.  A gall may produce many spore horns, which cause it to resemble orange-colored blossoms from a distance.  Severely rusted Juniperus can be very conspicuous.”

From the reading I did I found that these galls apparently do no harm to the cedar trees but can do damage to the apple trees.  There may be damage to the leaves and on the fruit as well.  It can weaken the trees and can cause them to eventually die.  In some areas in past years laws were passed requiring all cedar trees near apple orchards to be destroyed.  As many cedars as we have here on the farm that isn’t an option.  Hopefully, our young apple trees won’t suffer too greatly.

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What Was I Thinking?

In an earlier post I mentioned hauling home rocks that had been used for the foundation of the old house I’m tearing down.  I have since hauled even more home and there are a few more to bring.  We have had a flower bed in the back yard that is far from level.  The richer soil seems to migrate to the lower edge.  I decided that I would use the rocks to enclose this flower bed.  That was a bit of work but hauling soil and filling it in is also taking time and a toll on my back.

Now that I am nearing completion I found a recent listing on the “local” Craig’s List.  It was captioned,  “Handhewn Antique foundation stone - $500”  The ad states,  “I’ve got about 40 ranging in size from 12x12x5 to a couple 12x12x36.  These are HEAVY”  What was I thinking?  Mine were just as nice and heavy, I used approximately 40 of them on the flower bed and I’ve expended a lot of time and effort, and just think, I could have made a few hundred dollars (perhaps).  Anyway, pictured here is the project nearing completion.



As you can see we have to move a few more plants before I can finish filling in the flower bed.  Several have already been removed, some planted elsewhere and others awaiting being replaced in this bed.

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Report On Our Big Adventure—Entry #3

Late Tuesday afternoon, March 16th, we were getting some good views of the Rocky Mountains.

 

As we got nearer to Glacier the views got much better.


It was getting into late afternoon or early evening when we made our trip through Glacier.  Shortly after reaching Glacier we were able to spot a small herd of elk right near the railroad.  I had my camera in hand but it wasn’t ready to take a picture. 


The above photo and the ones following are just a few of the shots I attempted.  I just picked out a few to share.  I’ll share a few more that I took on our return trip in another report.


The railroad tracks have a number of curves and are in many places right on the side of a mountain.  The next photo is one of several I took of the train we were travelling on.  As I mentioned before we were in the next to last car on the train and we were able to see the front section when making some of these curves.


As can be seen here, the cars on the Empire Builder are “double decker” cars.  On the coach cars, such as we rode, the seats are “upstairs.”  On the first level were the restrooms and some luggage storage.  There are some special seating that can be reserved, as we found out on our return trip.  Several ladies and their small children had reserved those seats and had an area that was pretty private.


Shortly after 8:00 P.M. we crossed the continental divide at 5216 feet above sea level.  Actually, Marias Pass is the lowest pass between New Mexico and Canada.  It was the pass sought by Lewis and Clark and which was finally established by John Stevens, with the assistance of a Blackfeet Indian guide, while on a mission for the Great Northern Railway in 1889.  Just past the actual top of the pass I spotted this obelisk and snapped this picture.  I found later that it is a monument to President Theodore Roosevelt.





By the time we reached the western entrance to Glacier Park it was getting dark.  Connie and I were delighted to see the evening star and the small crescent moon. 

Until the next installment.

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Report On Our Big Adventure—Entry #2

Before continuing my report I wanted to mention a few things. Some of the photos are not as good as I would have liked but there were several factors working against us. The train windows were dirty. We also got quite a bit of reflection on the glass at times. The train was moving at various speeds and unless pictures were taken looking forward of backward there tended to be a great deal of blurring. Now on to more of the report.

We were quite tired on Monday evening and it wasn’t long after it became dark as we traveled toward Minneapolis-St. Paul that we settled back and tried to sleep. The lights on the train were turned down and quiet time was requested—cells phones turned to vibrate, all electronic gadgets to be use with earphones, etc. Even station stops were no longer announced over the P.A. The conductor or attendant was responsible for waking those scheduled to disembark—a destination tag was displayed under the seat number. I think I slept through some of the station stops entirely. I did wake up when we pulled into the Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN station around 10:30 P.M. We were there for 45 minutes or so but I went back to sleep and was not aware of us leaving or stopping at the next several stations.

Sleeping on the train in Coach Class wasn’t too bad. The seats reclined some and we were given a small pillow to use. Most of the time when I did awaken it was because I was getting a stiff neck from the position I was in and I would have to reposition myself. When I did awaken early Tuesday morning it was difficult to know where we were. It was pretty easy to observe that we were in an area where Winter was still with us. The photos below (although with some reflection) were taken after daylight between Rugby and Minot, ND. These were taken from the observation car and I think there was more reflection there than in our own car.



Around 11:00 A.M. we stopped at Williston, ND. This has a bit of a special interest to us in that it was the home town of Ardis who was the bridesmaid at our wedding. I took this photo of an old locomotive that sits across from the Amtrak station. On the return trip I stepped off the train and snapped the picture of the station.


Shortly after leaving Williston, ND we crossed into Montana and Mountain Daylight Time zone. Here are a couple of pictures taken in Eastern Montana.


Going across Montana I saw quite a number of antelope but never had my camera ready when I saw them. The top photo below was taken West of Malta, MT and East of Havre, MT. In was in this area that we pulled into a siding to await the passing of the East bound Empire Builder, as seen in the bottom picture.

In my next entry I’ll cover our approach to and our trip through Glacier Park.

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Report On Our Big Adventure—Entry #1

Our Big Adventure began Sunday, March 14th.  The day was spent taking care of all of the last minute details.  We left home about 5:45 P.M. and drove to Bowling Green, KY.  Darryl went along to drive our van back home.  Our Greyhound bus was scheduled for 7:40 P.M., however, it was running late.  Another bus came and we were told we could take it to Louisville but we would have to transfer to the bus we were waiting on to go on to Indianapolis.  We decided to just wait.  Finally about 8:30 we boarded our bus, a very crowded bus.  We were not able to get seats together.  I was one row back and across the aisle from Connie.

All passengers had to exit the bus in Louisville and we were told we would be there for about 30 minutes.  About an hour later we resumed our journey.  The bright side was that quite a number of the passengers had to transfer at Louisville and the bus was not quite so crowded.  Also, as we were re-boarding we got to board before any new passengers got on and were able to find seats together.  Even with all of the delays we arrived at the Indianapolis bus and train station about on time, about 2:00 A.M. 


This photo is of the bus we rode to Indianapolis.  The picture was taken at the Indianapolis station after we arrived.  The side doors are open so luggage could be unloaded.

We had purchased our Amtrak tickets on-line and had gotten only a confirmation.  We took this to the Amtrak ticket counter and obtained our tickets for the entire trip.  Then it was wait once again.  The Hoosier State train #851 was scheduled to depart at 6:30 A.M., but, it was also running late.  Instead of arriving at Chicago’s Union Station at 10:35 A.M. we arrived about 11:15. 

This did not present any problem for us as we were not scheduled to depart on the Empire Builder until 2:15 P.M.  Our wait wasn’t quite as long as we anticipated.  They began boarding senior citizens, handicapped and families about 45 minutes prior to departure time.  The train is made up of two trains, train #7 going to Seattle and train #27 going to Portland.  The train is split into two separate trains at Spokane, WA.  Since we were going to Portland we were in the rear section, actually the next to the last car.

  This is a photo of our car taken shortly after boarding.

Connie settling in for the cross country trip.

The trains enter and leave Union Station underground.  This picture was taken as we began to move.  The Chicago River in the foreground and the Chicago Sun Times Building as seen from our seats.

The day was cloudy and a bit overcast most of the day on Monday, March 15th, as we travelled from Indy to Chicago and as we headed toward Wisconsin.  But, shortly after getting into Wisconsin the clouds disappeared and we had sun the rest of the afternoon.

We had station stops at Glenview, IL, Milwaukee,

WI, Columbus, WI, Portage, WI and here at Wisconsin Dells.  The photo above was taken just after pulling away from the station and as we crossed the Wisconsin River.  Connie and I had visited the Dells several times in past years so this was a familiar sight.

Shortly after the next station stop at Tomah, WI we went through our first tunnel of the trip, a 1,350 foot long tunnel.  The photo below was taken as we approached the end and a bit of outside light could be seen.

As we neared La Crosse, WI and crossed into Minnesota we ran out of daylight.  Here is a picture I took of the sunset.

I’ll continue the report of our Big Adventure in my next post.

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